The fourth meeting convened for the adoption of the National 
Petition by the Chartist Council was held in London last Tuesday.’ 
Mr. Julian Harney presided. Messrs Clark and Dixon, of the Chartist 
central committee,” West, of Macclesfield, Skelton, Keen, and Fussell 
spoke in turn. But the orators of the evening were Messrs Harney 
and Jones. We give extracts of their speeches «: 

Mr. Ernest Jones—We are assembled here to assist in passing a Coercion Bill against 
the government, and to produce such a “pressure from without”, as shall squeeze 
poor little Lord John Russell into something like a decent and statesman-like shape. 
We need this pressure, seeing that of all the parliaments we have had, the present 
parliament is assuredly the most hostile to working men. (A voice: No! no!) Someone 
says No. But I repeat that no class has ever proved as hostile to the working class as the 
middle class of England. (Hear, hear.) It has cast down aristocracy on the left, 
democracy on the right, and lives on the ruins of both. I do not wish to raise the 
aristocracy. No! Let the bruised serpent lie, for it would sting the hand that healed it.... 
Under feudalism, the people were fat slaves; under your rule, Sir defender of the 
middle class, they are lean slaves. (Loud cheers.) 

Seeing then that we never had a more middle class, and therefore a more hostile 
parliament, it is time to organise resistance. And the people knows this. We too are 
increasing our army; the Old Guards of Chartism are in the field again. We too are 
enrolling our militia, the starving millions. We too are strengthening our “national 
defences”, courage in our hearts, discipline in our ranks, and unity in our action. 
(Applause.) 

...But there are some gentlemen here who are not satisfied with this, and who say 
that millions of determined, well organised and well informed men are insufficient to 
obtain the Charter. These gentlemen tell the people that they must grow rich and then 

* January 11, 1848.—Ed. 

they will be free. But I tell you, you must become free and then you will be rich! 
(Applause.) 

Become rich! how? In the workhouse or the gaol? Become rich in the deer forests 
of our nobles? Become rich on six shillings (8 francs)" a week? Become rich in the 
churchyards of famished Ireland? (Applause.) Go tell it to the unemployed in 
Manchester—to the 20,000 destitute in Bradford. Go tell it to the Irish tenant, dying 
by the light of his burning cottage set on fire by his landlord. Go tell it to the beggar at 
the doors of Grosvenor Square! Go tell him once for all to stay a slave; but do not 
insult his misery by telling him to become rich! I know you will here point to our 
glorious Land Company"** to prove that the people can become rich.... But do you 
imagine that the government will let you go on?... This company has succeeded in 
rescuing 50,000 families from ruin; but rest assured, Parliament will prevent you from 
forming other companies, unless you obtain political power!... Let the Land Company 
members remember their forefathers, the yeomanry of England, who all owned the 
land. How did they lose it? Why, by taxation, which ruined them. 

...Now then, gentlemen, make money, it will be wanted for the militia, for the 
increased army. Make money, it will be wanted for fresh palaces, for new bishops, for 
new royal babies! Make money, become middle class yourselves, and then, as you 
know, the middle class will no longer fear you! Make money—and this impossible task 
will be your only salvation. Not one word about our triumph at Nottingham,” of our 
organisation, of our national petition and our National Convention, now being 
prepared. 

...No, my friends, above all we need the vote.... And you, men of London, you have 
it more in your power to obtain it than your brothers in the rest of England.... Our 
gallant men of the north are a long way off; their voices will not be heard, for there are 
hundreds of miles and plenty of barracks between those petitioners and Parliament. 
But you, men of London, can go in person and knock at the doors of St. Stephen’s,””° 
knock till your privileged debtors give you back, trembling, what they have owed you 
for centuries! So knock, and go on knocking until justice has been done. (Thunderous 
applause.) 

Mr. Julian Harney.—We are here to adopt a petition to Parliament.... But we are 
not asking for mercy or pity. Even were we so degraded as to do such a thing, we know 
that we have nothing to expect from the pity of our oppressors.... It was not by crying 
misericordia that our forefathers rescued themselves from the yoke of the traitor 
Charles I. It was not by begging for mercy that the Americans broke their chains. It 
was not by crying misericordia that the French people overthrew the tyranny of 
feudalism, priestcraft and monarchy. (Great cheering.) 

No, it would be vain for us to implore Capital for mercy. All our petitions would 
achieve nothing if they were not followed by other measures. First, we do not ask for 
pity, we ask for justice. We demand it, not only by the petition, but also by our 
agitation and our organisation, which is already beginning to terrify the parliamentary 
middle class. Continue to agitate, then, for when you cease, your petitions are only 
empty words. 

Truly, the prize is worth the struggle. Behold this mighty empire, built up by the 
strong arms and cemented by the blood of your fathers; this empire of 160 million 
inhabitants, covering the sixth part of the habitable globe, this empire on which “the 
sun never sets”.© How is it that you, owners and conquerors of millions of miles of this 

fair earth, do not possess a foot of land? That millions of the heirs of this magnificent 
empire are dying of hunger, that thousands have no shelter from the wintry blast? 
The natural and manufactured riches of every clime are produced in the limits of the 
British Empire. Our manufactures are the wonder and envy of the whole world. For 
skill, industry and heroism our artisans, labourers and sailors are celebrated 
everywhere. All the elements of greatness and happiness abound, in spite of which 
you are crushed by misery. This empire is rightfully the property not of an idle, a 
scheming privileged few, but of the entire people. Is such a prize not worth struggling 
for? The Charter is the means by which you will win it. (Cheers.) When, therefore, the 
usurpers ask you to arm in defence of the country, refuse until you have your fair 
share of its advantages. If you armed yourselves, what would be your fate? Remember 
the poor soldier who was recently shot in India for insubordination, this is your share; 
compare it with the share of the Duke of Wellington, who got from the Treasury a 
sum of two and a half million pounds (60 million francs): So much for the aristocrats. 

Well, then! If the aristocrary fears the loss of its broad acres, let it fight for the 
protection of those acres! If the Church fears the confiscation of its immense 
revenues, let the parsons and bishops arm themselves! If the Jews and jobbers of 
‘Change Alley 25° fear the swamping of their funds, let them fight to protect their 
plunder! If the shopocracy fear the seizure of their tills and their ledgers let them arm 
and fight to protect their property! But you, men of the people, overworked and 
ill-paid sons of toil, houseless and shivering serfs of privilege, you who have neither 
lands, nor revenues, nor rent nor tithes, nor public funds, nor shares, nor profits, nor 
usury, nor votes, to whom the throne affords no protection and the law no security, 
fight for something else, or fight not at all! (Great cheering.) If you must fight, fight 
for yourselves. (Renewed cheering.) When lords and priests and bourgeois ask you to 
fight, let your answer be: No vote, no musket! Knaves and fools are now rushing into 
print with talk of national defence; there is only one defence, that of the Chartists: The 
land for the people, every man a home, every man a vote, and every man a musket! 
(Thunderous applause.) :